Pages

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

I built all three of my Dire Avenger squads with Exarchs. While they look great, they're not great on the table. I was hesitant to pick up another box of Dire Avengers because they are so expensive now for only five models, but I found a box on clearance at my FLGS. I guess they're selling as poorly as I thought at the new price.

I painted up three of the Dire Avengers, in the schemes of my squads. One of the original Avengers is on the left while the new model is on the right.

Monday, December 22, 2014

Money's been a bit tight lately, so I painted a few models for friends' Christmas presents. I really hope that they're happy with how they turned out.

First, up is this C'tan shard. My buddy wanted it painted up as if it were glowing green, with the chest being the brightest part and the extremities darker. His Necron army has purple accents, so I went with purple for the cloth streaming from the model. Gives him kind of a Joker look, I think. The horns on the right side of the model's head were missing, so I sculpted some on. I think they look fairly symmetrical.

Monday, December 15, 2014

Sithanan and Kimoril were twin brothers born on Craftworld Sinn Achai. Both chose the Path of the Warrior, adopting Aspects that appealed to their nature. Sithanan, quick-witted and mercurial, took up the mantle of the Swooping Hawk, while Kimoril, straight-forward and brooding, found himself among the Fire Dragons. Both brothers excelled in their chosen path, and eventually found themselves elevated to Exarchs. The Autarchs commonly deployed their temples together, where their squads operated with almost perfect coordination. Sithanan's squad would identify armored targets and eliminate the defending infantry, allowing Kimoril's squad to destroy their targets without reprisal.

Friday, December 12, 2014

I'm still trying to get the hang of my Eldar. While they definitely have a lot of hitting power and speed, it is the lack of durability that I have to get used to. The Eldar Warhost isn't the auto win army that the internet believes it is. I've got a few thoughts on the units I've used, so you can consider these updates to the Tactica I wrote.

1) Wave Serpents are either gunboats or transports, but not both. If you use them as a transport, you need to Jink to keep them alive, which basically removes them as a shooting threat. If they're a gunboat, then they can't afford to Jink to add to their survivability. Therefore, a gunboat should take a shuriken cannon while a transport should take holofields and perhaps a ghostwalk matrix. Unfortunately, I built all of my Wave Serpents with shuriken cannons, and I run mine primarily as transports. As it goes, I guess a 10 point tax on the Wave Serpents I use as a transports isn't bad. The extra firepower does come in handy if I get to fire an opening salvo before delivering the troops or if the Wave Serpents survive after dropping them off.

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

I don't usually write about rumors. They tend to be very unreliable and most bloggers get really bent out of shape about things that never come to pass. However, the Blood Angels Codex is about to come out, and some very reliable sounding rumors have been posted, along with a picture of the poster holding a copy of the codex. More importantly, I'm just really excited to be able to write about Blood Angels again, so I'm going to drop my normal practice and address these rumors.

You can find the complete leaks here. I'm not going to go through them in detail, but rather just discuss those that I think will have a big effect on the army.

First, only Tactical squads and Scout Squads will be Troops. Assault squads are going back to Fast Attack and Death Company and Death Company Dreadnoughts will be Elites. This is in keeping with other 7th Edition codices, and really isn't much of a surprise. I am a bit miffed because I have four Assault squads, so I won't get to use all of them most of the time, but that's not too big a deal. I do have 60 Tactical Marines, but I'll probably pick up some more. First, most of my old squads aren't up to my current painting standards. The new Blood Angels Tacticals look so great that I'd rather paint them than repaint my old models (many of which are 15 years old). Second, Blood Angels Tactical squads are able to take heavy flamers now, which is amazing for a mobile Tactical squad. Of course, my old squads don't have heavy flamers, so I'd want to get some of the new Tacticals anyway.

Monday, December 8, 2014

Here is my next addition to my Eldar army from my mass of unpainted models. It's a squad of Swooping Hawks, meaning I officially have too many Fast Attack choices to field in a CAD. This is the first FOC slot that I've over-filled with my Eldar.

Friday, December 5, 2014

Here's the background I'm working on for my Eldar army. Please feel free to let me know what you think and how you think it could be fleshed out.

The Craftworld Sinn Achai was one of the last to flee the
Eldar Empire that actually survived the birth of She Who Thirsts. As a result,
its occupants were some of the least puritanical of the survivors. Due to their
late departure, they were ensconced in the privilege and luxury that was so
common on the late Eldar Empire. Once their initial supplies ran out, the
occupants of Sinn Achai quickly realized that they lacked the skills to survive
without the infrastructure to which they were accustomed.

Initially, the Sinn Achai Eldar reached out to other
Craftworlds for help. Unfortunately, their late departure meant that the more
puritanical Craftworlds believed them to be tainted by the hedonism that had
caused the Fall. The lack of skilled individuals on Sinn Achai only supported
this assertion.

Monday, December 1, 2014

Here is my last Phoenix Lord, Fuegan, the Burning Lance. As the founder of the Fire Dragons, I wanted a very warm color scheme, so I went for deep reds and golds. To set these colors off, I painted all of the dragon skulls and scales in bone. This brightened the model a bit, as well as visually tying him to Karandras. I'm going to have to use more bone on my Eldar.

Friday, November 28, 2014

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. I've got a battle report here for some Black Friday reading while you digest.

I’m trying to get some more experience with my Eldar, now
that they’re better painted and a more balanced army. I brought it to my FLGS
for a 2,000 point game. My list wasn’t the strongest, but it used some of my
newly painted models. I was somewhat restricted as my Eldar collection is just
barely above 2,000 points in total.

Monday, November 24, 2014

Here's the second in my set of Pheonix Lords, Karandras, founder of the Striking Scorpions. Karandras has quite a bit of personality in his backstory. He is not the first Striking Scorpion Exarch, but deposed his Chaos-tainted predecessor, Arhra. He is described as living for the hunt, lying in wait for decades before launching his ambush. He only seems to come alive when slaughtering the foes of his people.

Friday, November 21, 2014

The Stormraven Gunship is one of the heaviest flyers in the
game (not including Forgeworld), with AV12 on all facings. It has fairly been
called a flying Land Raider, and it shares the Assault Vehicle and Power of
the Machine Spirit rules with Land Raiders. It can carry up to 12 models,
including Terminators and jump infantry, as well as a Dreadnought. It comes
with a turret mounted twin-linked assault cannon, which can be switched for a
twin-linked plasma cannon or twin-linked lascannon for free, and a forward
mounted twin-linked heavy bolter, which can be traded out for a twin-linked
multi-melta or upgraded to a typhoon missile launcher. It also comes with 4
stormstrike missiles, and you can add hurricane bolter sponsons.

Monday, November 17, 2014

I received three Phoenix Lords last year for Christmas, Asurmen, Karandras, and Fuegan. It obviously took me a long time to get around to painting them, but I finally finished the first one. Fittingly, it's Asurmen, Pheonix Lord of the Dire Avengers. I think he's one of the better Pheonix Lords in game, and he performed very well in the single game I've managed to played with him. It was time to paint him.

Friday, November 14, 2014

It's rare that I finish a book soon enough after it is released to think it's worth posting a review. I generally have quite a reading backlog, so even if I buy a book upon release, I usually won't start reading it for months. I made an exception here because Aaron Dembski-Bowden is by far my favorite Black Library author, so I picked up Talon of Horus and started reading immediately.

This book wasn't anything like what I expected when I heard it would be about Abbadon forming the Black Legion. In the previous background (as I know it), Abbadon took command of the Sons of Horus after Horus' death and just commanded them to repaint their armor to start again, untainted by Horus' failure. Straightforward and not terribly interesting if you (like me) aren't a big fan of the Sons of Horus.

Friday, November 7, 2014

The Land Raiders all work on the same chassis, with AV 14
all around and 4 HP. All of them mount two sponson weapons and a forward facing
gun, as well as having the option to stick a multi-melta on top (you should
always do this). Land Raiders can carry Terminators, making them and
Stormravens our only options for transporting Terminators. They all have the
rules Assault Vehicle, making them
our best way to deliver assault units,and
Power of the Machine Spirit, allowing
them to split fire with their many weapons. There are three patterns of Land
Raiders with different weapon loads and transport capacities.

Friday, October 31, 2014

The Predator is the most basic Space Marine tank. It overall
dropped in price in the latest codex, and has respectable armor and a decent
range of weapons. It comes base with a turret-mounted autocannon, which you can
upgrade to a twin-linked lascannon. For sponsons, it can take either heavy
bolters or lascannons. This means that you can equip it for either anti-infantry
or anti-armor.

The anti-infantry load-out is pretty straightforward, with
an autocannon and heavy bolter sponsons. The anti-armor configuration can take
either the autocannon or twin-linked lascannon for the turret along with
lascannon sponsons. In both cases, the Predator provides solid firepower for
the points. However, it has very stiff competition from other Heavy Support
slots. The anti-infantry Predator really can’t compete with a Thunderfire Cannon.
The anti-armor Predator is slightly less points efficient than a Devastator
squad, but it is tougher against most of the firepower on the table and more
mobile. If you want a Predator to do some damage, I suggest going all
lascannons.

The Predator only really benefits from Iron Hands Chapter
Tactics, but it is a significant benefit. It’s worth noting that the Imperial
Fist Chapter Tactics destroy the balance between Predators and Devastators;
giving Devastators Chapter Tactics makes them far superior, so don’t expect to
see Predators in an Imperial Fists army.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

The Warpborn Skinwalkers Unit Attachment, the Alpha

As I mentioned in my previous post, when the Warpborn Skinwalkers were released, they were heavily criticized because of their similarity to, and inferiority to, Gatormen Posse. A really awesome aspect of Warmachine/Hordes is that you aren't locked into the army list in a book. Whenever Privateer Press wants to add a new unit or character they can, they simply release the unit with a corresponding stat card and voila, its legitimate. That's what they did with the Warpborn Skinwalkers in the form of a leader attachment, the Warpborn Alpha. This aspect also comes into the fact that you can always be excited about new releases and don't have to wait for an entirely new army book, like in 40k, although it seems like that may be changing with all the new dynamics coming into play.

Friday, October 17, 2014

Devastators are the most straightforward and iconic of the
Space Marine Heavy Support choices. A squad of Marines that can take up to four
heavy weapons, Devastators provide a stationary firebase. I prefer to take them
as a full ten Marine squad, as the extra bodies protect the heavy weapons and
the ability to Combat Squad allows
them to engage two targets and cover more of the table.

The main question with Devastators is what heavy weapon to
give them. I always suggest taking four of the same weapon, as this means they
have the same target preferences and range. Missile launchers are a common
option because they can target both infantry and vehicles fairly well. Flakk
missiles are an option here; they are quite expensive but they do allow your
Devastators to reliably shoot down fliers. If you don’t have any other anti-air
and are taking Devastators, it’s worth spending the points for flakk.
Lascannons are your best option for anti-tank, while plasma cannons will chew
through heavy infantry very well. Heavy Bolters are an option, but there are
generally better options for anti-light infantry fire (we’ll get to it in a bit).
Multi-meltas, while great weapons, don’t do their best work on such a
stationary platform due to their short range. You will be better off taking
them on Attack Bikes or Speeders.

Monday, October 13, 2014

In my quest to paint all of my unpainted miniatures, the next obvious choice is another squad of Warp Spiders. When I've used them in games, they've been one of my favorite units. Adding another full squad couldn't hurt.

Friday, October 10, 2014

The Bike squad can be thought of very similarly to a mobile Tactical
squad. It carries decent anti-infantry firepower with twin-linked bolters, can
take two special weapons at any size, and can take either a heavy bolter or
multi-melta on an Attack Bike. Like the Tactical squad, it prefers to stay at
medium to short range and shoot at the enemy, and it will do just as little
damage in close combat. Unlike the Tactical squad, it is very fast for a Marine
unit and more durable with T5. Cementing the comparison, Bike squads become
Troops if you take a Chapter Master or Captain on a bike as long as there are
at least 5 models in the squad.

There really isn’t much argument; Bike squads are great
Troops choices. They can bring lots of firepower to bear on any target with
their mobility, and they are durable enough to take a beating and keep
fighting. They can use Combat Squads
to saturate the enemy with targets, just like Tactical squads. As an Objective Secured unit, they’ve got the
speed to steal objectives from the enemy. Even without being Troops, Bikes are
a very useful unit for their mobility and durability.

Monday, October 6, 2014

In my crusade against unpainted models, my next targets were more Protectorate of Menoth models. First up is another warcaster, Grand Scrutator Severius. He's a leader of the army, and is basically a Menite bishop, though he's really into torturing and burning people that don't listen to him. You can see the influence on the model and the paint scheme.

Friday, October 3, 2014

Probably the most iconic Fast Attack choice, Assault squads
are composed of standard Marines wearing jump packs and carrying bolt pistols
and chainswords. They can carry two flamers or plasma pistols in a any size squad, allowing them to deliver multiple special weapons even at minimum size. The Sergeant can take melee weapons and pistols, as well as
melta-bombs and a combat shield. Finally, they can swap out their jump packs
for a free Rhino or Drop Pod.

As an old Blood Angel player, I love Assault squads.
However, they just aren’t that great on the table. In combat, they’re basically
Tactical Marines with an extra attack. Any Marine player knows that this won’t
do much damage to most enemy units. Enemies that they can take out could be
dealt with by most other Marine units too. Beyond that, jump packs in 7th
Edition aren’t great for getting into combat because they can only be used in
the movement or assault phase. They do provide good mobility around the table
though.

Monday, September 29, 2014

Sorry for the break in posts. My week has been turned upside down by a very serious illness within my family. I don't want to go into it much, but I wanted to let you all know that posts may be sporadic in the future. I am going to try to keep writing because it gives me a nice break from real life.

My latest finished model is a Wight Lord Battle Standard Bearer. I converted him from undead and high elf models years ago when I converted a Grave Guard unit (for context, this was before they released a plastic Grave Guard kit). I never painted him because the freehand on the banner was intimidating. However, I read the new Nagash supplement for Fantasy and it really got me excited about the undead again. I pulled this model off my shelf and painted him up.

Monday, September 22, 2014

This fellow is my latest painted model, a Reckoner Warjack for Warmachine. Every person that makes fun of how unrealistic the proportions on a Space Marine Dreadnought are should look at this guy. He's all shoulders and arms with itty bitty legs. Imposing, but not practical. I'm trying to relearn my Menoth painting technique. This came out rougher than I planned, but I think part of it is that my Menoth White Highlight paint is getting old. It's got way too much grit in it.

Friday, September 19, 2014

The last two Elites choices are a bit mismatched, being the only ones without multiple versions in the slot. Even so, discussing them will bring some 40K back into they Warmahordes dominated week here in the Fourth Company Librarium.

Legion of the Damned

The Legion of the Damned took a cut in points cost and went
from being a laughable unit to a very effective but niche unit. Legionnaires
have the statline of veteran Space Marines with LD10. The also have Fear and Fearless, as well as Slow
and Purposeful. All of their weapons Ignore
Cover and their power armor save is invulnerable. All in all, a tough
package for a few more points than Sternguard Veterans. Legion squads always
have to arrive by Deep Strike, but
they get to re-roll the scatter dice when they arrive.

Combined, these rules make Legion of the Damned an excellent
unit to Deep Strike into the enemy
army and light up an important enemy unit. Their reliable placement, ability to
fire heavy weapons when they arrive, and Ignore
Cover allow them to do more damage on the drop than any other Space Marine
unit. Most commonly, Legionnaires are armed with a meltagun, combi-melta, and
multi-melta in order to destroy an enemy heavy vehicle. They even reliably kill
skimmers as they ignore Jink saves.
However, they can be armed with plasma weapons to kill heavy infantry or
flamers (including a heavy flamer) to wipe out light infantry.

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Starting Hordes with the Circle Orboros Warpborn Skinwalkers

As I've brought up before, I started playing Hordes by purchasing the 2 player battle box which features a unit of heavy infantry for both factions. The Circle Orboros infantry is a full unit of Warpborn Skinwalkers, soldiers given a small amount of the Warpwolf elixir that creates the two huge Warpwolf beasts from my previous posts. The result is a awesome looking unit of werewolf soldiers that look great with the rest of the force.

How Warpborn Skinwalkers fit in Circle Orboros and play in Hordes

The story is that some druid overseers in the Circle will take volunteers from the Wolves of Orboros, the faction's standard human spear wielding grunt infantry, and give them a small amount of the elixir. The result allows the soldiers to transform into hulking, werewolf soldiers when the faction is in need of their support. The catch is that even while in human form, they become aggressive and confrontational, and generally screw up their life from before they took the elixir. But, these guys look awesome and are durable with 8 wounds each, which is not nearly as awesome as 8 40k wounds. They serve as a great front line for the teleportation tricks of the faction to move around because they can take a beating and have strong weapons with the reach ability so they can attack models 2" away from them. They form a nice threat bubble to move up the field around.

Monday, September 15, 2014

I last put paint to a Warmachine model in 2011, before putting them on the backburner to concentrate on 40K. However, I did start painting one of my units before I did. As such, they've been sitting unfinished on my shelf looking at me for the better part of three years. Since it's now my goal to paint up all of the models that I have assembled, they were a logical next step. Also, my brother's series of articles on getting started in Hordes has rekindled a bit of my interest in the game.

Friday, September 12, 2014

Terminators are the iconic Space Marine elites. They have
the excellent veteran statline, a 2+/5++ save, and carry a storm bolter and
power fist. The squad can take an assault cannon, cyclone missile launcher, or
heavy flamer for every five models in the squad. The assault cannon adds to the
squad’s anti-infantry firepower while the cyclone gives it some flexibility by
adding anti-tank firepower. The heavy flamer is generally not a good choice, as
standard Terminators are not really assault troops. They don’t have the speed
to use such a short ranged weapon, and they will be left in a poor position if
they ever get the chance to fire it. Beyond this, any model can take a
chainfist. I’d suggest at least one to give the squad the ability to carve up
heavy vehicles or walkers. It’s a great addition for a few points.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

The Basics of Warmachine and Hordes

Warmachine and Hordes do have army books/codexes, but unlike Warhammer, they're not required for play. All of the characters and units come with cards with all of that unit's stats and abilities on them. This way, it's simple to have access to all of your unit's info and mark off damage on multi-wound models like warbeasts. Special rules are listed on the back of the unit's card and Warlocks have an extra card with their spells and feat listed. These cards have the unit point cost on them as well, so its easy to assemble and alter army lists with just them.

Units all have individual movement, strength, melee attack rating, ranged attack rating, defense, armor and command. Below these stats are the unit's weapon(s), which determine number of attacks. Weapons can be a variety of things, from a soldier's sword or axe to a beast's 2 claws and jaws. Special rules are shown by icons under each weapon listing and each weapon has a power rating which is combined with the units strength for their attack. These are general rules, all these stats can be affected by special rules.

Here are some of the basics. You can move your speed stat, charge your speed plus three inches, or run double your movement, but if you run it takes that model/unit's entire activation. Units can then use their ranged or melee weapons or abilities. For each respective type of attack, they use their attack rating and add the value of 2D6 to beat the target unit's defense value. If you successfully hit, roll 2 dice and add them to the weapons Power+Strength (P+S) listed under the weapon name to try to best the targets armor value. Every point you beat the armor by is one point of damage.

Friday, September 5, 2014

The Dreadnought has generally fallen out of favor, but I
think that it’s undeserved. It’s fairly durable for its price, and can act
either as a close range threat with an assault cannon or multi-melta and a
power fist or it can act as a fire platform with an extremely cost effective
pair of twin-linked autocannons or the more expensive but harder hitting twin-linked
lascannon and missile launcher. It’s particularly important because this is the
most efficient long ranged firepower you can get outside of Heavy Support.

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Circle Orboros Loves the Warpwolf Stalker

Before I even decided on playing Circle in Hordes, I had to check out the forums only and see what people had to say. It was really nice to find out that Privateer Press hosts a great forum and each faction has a dedicated beginner section. In exploring the beginner forums, army list discussions, and everywhere else that discussed Circle, everyone raved about the Warpwolf Stalker.

He is a variation on the Feral Warpwolf from one of my previous posts and is made by the same kit, which makes for easy magnetization. He's closer to being a human still. What that boils down to is that the Feral Warpwolf is a wild beast that tears targets apart where the Stalker has the benefits of being a Warpwolf with the perk of still having at least a partially human thought process. By combining these strengths, the Stalker has the strength and speed of the Feral while still using weapons (in this case a greatsword) and armor. His core role on the field is tearing apart units in vicious hit and run assaults.

Monday, September 1, 2014

My next project is a squad of Dire Avengers. You can see the first half here. While I do play a Swordwind style list with quite a few Wave Serpents, I just can't bring myself to field 5 Dire Avengers just to get more Serpents. Therefore, all of my squads are 10 strong with an Exarch. Eldar lists don't have to be min-maxed to the point that they're not fun to play against.

Friday, August 29, 2014

Vanguard Veterans are an elite version of the standard
Assault squad, composed of Veteran Space Marines with access to lots of
specialist weaponry. Fortunately, they dropped massively in point cost from
last edition, but their Heroic
Intervention no longer allows them to assault when they Deep Strike. They now ignore the penalty
for disordered charges and automatically pass tests for Glorious Intervention. These are handy but situational advantages; they won't change the game like assaulting from Deep Strike but the squad has decreased in cost enough that it's worth it.

You include Vanguard Veterans for their equipment, not their
special rules. Any model can take melee weapons such as power weapons and power
fists, as well as grav and plasma pistols and storm shields, and the Veteran
Sergeant can take a relic blade. If you want a jump pack squad that can take out
heavy targets, Vanguard Veterans are your best (really only) choice. Don’t go
overboard on the melee weapons; three or four are enough to wipe out most enemy
squads, and they get expensive quickly. Alternatively, I’ve heard that some
players have had success arming every model with two grav-pistols. These can Deep Strike and produce a ton of very
dangerous but short-ranged firepower. This seems very expensive to me (I would
prefer to just take a Command squad with plasma guns and a Drop Pod) but it
certainly packs a punch.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Games Workshop recently released a Dataslate with updated
rules for Imperial Assassins. Like many players, I’ve always loved the idea of
the assassins, but they haven’t been great at doing their jobs on the table and
their availability has been very limited. Their new rules go a long way to
fixing that.

Imperial Assassins count as an Imperial Faction and can be
included as an Officio Assassinorum detachment, which includes a single Elite
choice. All assassins share several special rules. They score a bonus victory
point if they kill the enemy Warlord, and all have Fearless, Infiltrate, and Move
through Cover. They cannot be joined by independent characters, have a 4+
invulnerable save, and inflict a -2 penalty to Look Out, Sir! rolls against wounds they caused. All of this
combines with a very strong statline, equal to or superior to a Chapter Master
in almost every stat. All of the Assassins are 150 points or less, so are quite
a value.

Monday, August 25, 2014

I was a bit burned out after the Imperiad, but I took some time off from painting and playing. Now that I've had a bit of a break, I've decided to try and finish painting most of my assembled models. My "needs to be painted shelf" is getting really crowded. This meant painting up some Eldar, as the vastly outnumber unpainted models from any other faction. First was the limited edition Ranger pictured above. I think he came out with the first Cityfight codex, and he's gone umpainted the whole time. He looks massive next to my older Rangers, as he's kneeling but is almost as tall as the old standing Rangers.

He came out a little bland because his coat and pack are just various shades of brown, but at least he matches the scheme on my old Rangers.

Friday, August 15, 2014

At the end of the weekend, I had four losses and a draw. Despite that awful sounding record, I was pretty happy with my play. Four of my games were very close, and a bit of luck would have resulted in some wins for me. Things just didn't fall my way.

The overall winner was a Tyranid player using lots of flying monstrous creatures. I don't know much about the list, but I do know that he absolutely crushed Imperial Knights using a combination of Crone haywire missiles and the fire power from 4 flying Hive Tyrants. Second place went to Eldar, while third place went to Necrons.

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

My second game was against an army composed of 5 Imperial Knights, all with thermic cannons. The game was Purge the Alien (kill points) with Vanguard Strike deployment. If that sounds like a brutal match up for me, I'll cheer you up with some nice pictures of my opponent's knights. They looked great, and I was really impressed at how well he was able to get the decals to blend into the paint.